One Direction singer Liam Payne, found dead on October 16 after falling from the balcony of his hotel room in Buenos Aires, Argentina, had consumed cocaine, alcohol and antidepressants before his death, Argentine prosecutors said to AFP, this Thursday, November 7.
“The results of the toxicological studies, already communicated to his family, revealed that, in the moments preceding his death and for at least his last 72 hours, Payne presented in his body a polyconsumption of alcohol, cocaine and antidepressants », Indicates the prosecution in a press release, specifying that three people were charged with selling drugs and abandoning a vulnerable person.
In detail, without specifying the names of the people involved, the prosecution specified that the person who accompanied Liam Payne daily during his stay in Buenos Aires is charged with “abandonment of a person followed by death”, an offense punishable by 5 to 15 years of imprisonment. prison, and supply of narcotics.
A hotel employee “faces charges of twice supplying cocaine to Liam Payne during his stay,” and a third person is “charged with twice supplying narcotics at two different times on October 14.” .
'Payne was not fully conscious'
The prosecution also confirmed the first results of the autopsy suggesting that the injuries on the victim's body were compatible with those of a fall and that self-mutilation or “physical intervention by third parties” were therefore excluded.
The autopsy revealed that on Payne's hands “no injuries of the type defensive was found, that all the injuries were vital and produced simultaneously with each other.
In other words, due to these injuries and the position of the body on the ground, the autopsy estimated that “Payne did not adopt a reflex posture to protect himself (in the fall) and that he may have fallen into a state of semi-unconsciousness or total unconsciousness”.
A thesis validated Thursday by the prosecution: “Payne was not fully conscious or was going through a state of notable reduction or abolition of consciousness at the time of the fall”.
The body being transferred to London
The body of Liam Payne, who died at the age of 31, is being transferred this Wednesday to London, a police source told AFP. Geoff Payne, the singer's father, accompanied the remains on board a plane which took off at 1:58 p.m. local time (5:59 p.m. French time) from Buenos Aires international airport. On Tuesday, he visited the memorial that fans erected outside the hotel where his son died.
In recent years, the pop star has spoken publicly about her drug addiction and her difficulty coping with fame at a young age.
The singer was catapulted to stardom in 2010 thanks to One Direction, a product of the television show “The X Factor”. The group became one of the most lucrative boy bands in the world, before going on hiatus in 2016, never formalizing a separation.
